MONTEGO BAY, St James – Affiliate groups of the ruling People’s National Party (PNP) and the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) have targetted 15 constituencies which they say, are “crucial”, if their party is to secure victory in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

“We have a list of about 15 constituencies that we are zeroing in on,” Andrew O’Kola, chairman of the PNP Youth Organisation, told the Observer.

“These constituencies, we are giving special emphasis and special focus, although our broad mandate is to cover all the constituencies.”

The 15 seats, O’Kola said, are those which the organisation believes additional work is needed to pull out the PNP’s core support.

Chairman of the JLP’s affiliate group, Generation 2000 (G2K), Warren Newby, for his part, said among the 15 constituencies that his group has targeted are West Central St James, South-East St Elizabeth and South-West St Elizabeth.

In West Central St James, the JLPs Clive Mullings is being challenged by former PNP Cabinet minister and MP, Francis Tulloch.

Mullings, the opposition spokesman on energy, won the seat in the 2002 general elections by just over 1,400 votes against the PNPs Arthur Nelson.

The South-East St Elizabeth seat is being contested by Mayor of Black River, Frank Witter (JLP), and the PNP’s Norman Horne.

Stanley Redwood and the JLP’s Chris Tufton will contest the neighbouring South-West seat. Both seats were won by margins of less than 500 in the last general elections.

The parliamentary seats getting special attention, Newby noted, are those considered by the group to be marginal.

G2K, which has been credited with making the 2002 general elections competitive, was instrumental in formulating many of the ideas and policies presented in the JLP’s 2002 election manifesto.

The professional group was also very active in the 2003 local government elections, in which the ruling party lost of all the parish councils, except Westmoreland.

“Over the last few years, we have placed a lot of our resources and effort in getting the JLP to be organisationally ready,” Newby told the Observer, pointing to the work that the G2Ks Polling and Training Unit has been doing quietly.

The Polling and Training Unit has spent time doing a detailed analysis of the past three elections, conducting polls to identify voter trends and attitudes, and building the capacity of the party’s workers. The group has also assisted the party in the enumeration exercise, and has made significant contribution to the JLP’s soon to be released 2007 election manifesto.

Some local political observers believe that the general election will be a closely contested affair between the two major political parties.

Over the past few weeks, the Portia Simpson Miller-led PNP, which has been in power for 18 years, and Bruce Golding’s JLP, have intensified their campaign in a bid to secure victory, in what is expected to be a crucial election for both leaders.

Newby said as soon as Simpson Miller announces the date for the polls, G2K too will intensify its political activities.

“We will be airing our own advertisements, increase our presence in constituencies … as part of our plan to step up our activities,” he said.

Meanwhile, O’Kola said the PNPYO, which is represented on the PNP’s election campaign committee, has already intensified it campaign.